New Delhi Sep 30 :- The extension of PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojna (PMGKAY) till December is likely to reduce the wheat stock with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to around 140 lakh tonnes by January 2023, almost to the same level of buffer stock norms. Due to this, there would be hardly any scope for market intervention by the government for open sale of wheat from its stock in case of any abnormal spike in prices in the coming months, sources said.
However, there will be surplus rice with FCI, much above the buffer stock norms, the government data suggest.
The data also show that the drastic fall in wheat procurement during this year and depleting stock have resulted in the lowest ever open market sale of the foodgrain in the country since 2015-16. Till May this year, FCI has sold barely 79,000 tonnes of wheat in the open market. The government has resorted to open market sale of wheat in all these years to increase supply and to tame the prices. Sources said the government doesn’t have that comfort level this year, particularly after extension of the PMGKAY for next three months.
While announcing the Cabinet decision on the free foodgrain scheme on Wednesday, the government said around 122 lakh tonnes of free foodgrains will be distributed to nearly 80 crore beneficiaries under this scheme. Though it has not yet given the details of the split between rice and wheat, TOI has learnt that the share of wheat would be barely 20-21 lakh tonnes.
The current wheat stock with the FCI is around 240 lakh tonnes and going by the current trend of monthly allocation of wheat under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and the extended PMGKAY scheme, nearly 100 lakh tonnes would be distributed to the beneficiaries till December end.
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